We hiked this out and back over five days starting on the 23'rd. Dropped kids at Girl Scout camp and arrived at the Foot bridge late on Sunday. A quick 2 miles to Matts Creek shelter where we spent our first ever night on the AT. We filtered water and chatted with a hiker who came down the hill going north (in the dark) about what we were facing the next day. She recommended "GutHook" as a guide to keep track of things. Setting our sights on Marble Springs, we set out the next day and discovered that our conditioning hikes did not include much elevation change. We had lunch at a primitive campsite at an intersection with Fire Road 35. Eventually we got to an open area with a sign for a spring 300 feet thataway. The water did not appear to be running as well as other hikers had told us that it Marble Springs would be, so we decided this must not be Marble Springs (rookie mistake #1). Since Marble Springs was still to come, we didn't refill water (rookie mistake #2).
We pushed up, then down to the Petites Gap crossing where we discovered for sure where we were and we decided to push on for the Thunder Hill Shelter for the night. My primary water bladder ran dry around this point so I switched to my backup and started to worry about water. Soon the first of the springs on the long uphill heading for High Cock Knob dribbled into view. We sat down for a break to filter and fill. (On our return trip, this spring was dry.) The Harrison Ground Spring sign has had a warning about bears added to it, and since we were now at full capacity we kept going.
We were getting tired and when we got to the view at AT mile 772.8, (not shown in the write up for this hike) we thought we had made it to the Thunder Ridge Overlook (rookie mistake #3). Looking out over the breathtaking view we saw several rain squalls heading our way, so we beat feet for the shelter. "Just 1.3 miles to go!" Then we came upon the ACTUAL Thunder Ridge Overlook, equally breathtaking, even more windy and still with squalls chasing us. "1.3 miles to go FOR SURE this time!"
We made it to the Shelter with daylight to spare, we set up our hammocks and crashed. Since we now had 4G signal, I downloaded the "GutHook's AT Guide" and the map for this section of trail. Tuesday we left the hammocks set up and left most of our gear in the Bear Box at the Shelter and did a day hike past the Guillotine, the FAA radar dome and down to the Sunset Field Parking area then back up for lunch near the radar dome and on to the Shelter. We shared the site with a very nice foursome of experienced trekkers who answered our questions and advised us on blister care.
The return trip had no problems other than blisters from the descents. We set our sights on Marble Springs, filled up and felt well enough to continue on to the Gunter Ridge campsite. Then hiked out on Thursday after a long break at Matts Creek Shelter talking with a through hiker and charging his phone.
We saw a few deer and one rattle snake who refused to yield the path on our way out with a mile to go. We discussed our desire to pass peacefully with the snake and took his silence for assent. Bushwhacking a wide berth around him left us all happy with the outcome of the negotiations.
We learned that really keeping track of where we were on the trail is pretty important. We enjoyed this hike and really appreciate the work that it took to write it up. We went into Glasgow for a post trail meal and while there watched a pretty good thunder storm blow in.

By:
Bryan

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Date of Hike: Saturday, July 23, 2016

My girlfriend and I did this as an overnight out and back trip starting at the James River Foot Bridge and going to the Marble Spring camp site(we didn't want to take 2 cars). The hike starts out great winding along the river and then by Matt's creek. If you wanted to do this as a more of a quick group camping trip/ gear shakedown there is a substantial amount of space for tents just past the Matt's Creek shelter along either side of the creek itself. There was a warning posted on the shelter about increased bear activity in the area so I wouldn't cut corners on hanging your bear bag up. Once you cross the creek there, is a pretty long uphill until you get up on the ridge line. On the ridge line there is a side trail which leads to a small overlook of the river rapids. Other than this overlook, we did not find many open views along the trail. From this point up until about 1.5 miles from Marble Spring is a LOT of uphill (maybe that's why the hike was planned going the other direction). What we believed to be the helicopter pad did not offer much of a view and was rather overgrown. Marble Spring campsite was great, and we had the whole site to ourselves. It is very open with plenty of room for tents, and has a small fire pit with log benches. The spring was only about 100 yards from the site. There is what appeared to be the remnants of an old fire road along the back of the site where someone decided to setup another small fire ring. Up the fire road there were several large trees with branches perfect for a bear bag. As far as solitude goes, we only saw 5 people over the course of two days and only ran into one person while actually on the trail. The temperature was in the mid to high 90's so that might have been a factor in the amount of people on the trail.
Summary: This trip was a good summer hike with plentiful water sources, open campsites, and seclusion, but lacked the views that many other routes offer. I would like to do this again starting at the sunset fields parking lot.

By:
Zach

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Date of Hike: Monday, July 04, 2016

July 4th was a great weekend to hike this bit of trail! The ATC keeps a list of trail shuttle services, if you only have one vehicle. Look for ones out of central Virginia servicing rockfish gap and south. Under $30 is a fair price. And be sure to thank these trail angels for all that they do.

This 17 miles was a workout. It's noticeably downhill back to the river but the walks up hill to Apple orchard and up from petites gap to highcock knob really push you. We enjoyed it.

Water was running in all the listed places. Close enough together that you don't need to carry more that 2 liters each, assuming you filter water at these sources when you need to refill.

By:

Rating:

Date of Hike: Saturday, April 11, 2015

Did the hike in two segments over 4/11 and 4/12. Started from Sunset Field. Being the first hike this season, it was a pretty tough test of fitness with the 900' elevation gain in the first 1.5 mile, then the 700' gain from Petite's Gap to Highcock Knob.

The downhills can be tough on the knees. If I had paid more attention, I wouldn't have carried all the water that I did.

Sidenote: I lost a hat somewhere between Petite's Gap and Marble Spring. It's a "Virginia is for Lovers" trucker hat. White label on black panel front with an off-white/brown mesh in the back velcro strap. I'm not holding out hope of finding and returning it, but if you do, wash it and give it a good home. :)

By:
Sabrina

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Date of Hike: Tuesday, May 06, 2014

I did this hike as a 3 day out and back starting and ending at the James River. I stayed at Thunder Hill shelter on day 1 and at the intersection of the Belfast Trail on day 2 so I could visit the Devil's Marbleyard the next morning. The campsites at the Helicopter Pad and at Belfast Trail are dry, but the source at Marlble Spring was flowing well. On the whole, this hike has very few flat sections so it's a physical challenge both ways (with almost entire days of uphill or downhill depending on which direction you take). However, the views were great and plenty of wildflowers were in bloom. Overall it was a nice hike and I'll probably come back in the fall to try and see if I can fit in the hike to Big Rocky Row and Punchbowl mtn. If you're willing to do over 10 miles a day then you can easily complete this hike as an out and back in three days.

By:

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Date of Hike: Friday, May 02, 2014

My wife and I, along with two friends, did this as a 2 night backpacking trip. We arrived Friday late afternoon, and hiked to the Thunder Hill Shelter, passing by the FAA Dome and the Guillotine rock formation. The spring at the shelter was running well (it's actually more of a cistern). There were some great views from the clearing at the FAA Dome. In general the views were great most of the trip due to the trees not yet leafing out at this altitude. There was a good amount of climbing to reach the Thunder Hill Shelter, but it was not too bad. Day 2, we hiked to Marble Spring camping area, and let me say, there is a butt kicker of a hill in this section. You end up hiking down pretty far to Pettite's Gap, and then the up to High Cock Knob is grueling...1 mile or so with no switchbacks!! Nice views at the top, which would probably not be visible 2 weeks from now. Then back down to Marble Springs for night 2. Not a lot of great, level sites, but tolerable, and a really nice spring down the hill from the camping. Day 3 we left Marble Springs, and had some generally easy ups, and then a really long, and hard downhill to the Matt's Creek Shelter, with a lot of nice panoramic views of the river...my knees were dying. From Matt's Creek Shelter to the footbridge, was nice and level for the most part, and hiking alongside the James River was nice. All in all, a great hike, and we will definitely come back again.

By:
Matthew

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Date of Hike: Saturday, March 22, 2014

I did about 10 miles of this hike in one day. It was a very nice day to go along with the very nice hike. There are literally nice views for miles at a time. It also isn't very steep, so you can enjoy the view. And it has a couple of nice streams to stop and have lunch. However the reason it doesn't get 5 out of 5 is that the last couple of miles are so repetitive especially climbing down the mountain.